Best Mystery Man

Don ZanFagna

Staff Pick

By the time Don ZanFagna moved to the Lowcountry, much of his active artistic career was behind him. Decades ago, he worked as a gallery artist in California, taught as a visiting professor at the Pratt Institute, and chaired the art department at Rutgers University. But even his own family had no idea what was going on in his head that whole time: ZanFagna wanted to grow houses — pulse domes, he called them — that would be entirely self-sustaining. He obsessed over the idea for 10 years, but it wasn’t until the Halsey’s Mark Sloan curated Pulse Dome Project: Art & Design by Don ZanFagna that the greater public was able to see the artist’s sketches, collages, and even a 3-D model, that detail his obsession. Now in his 80s, ZanFagna is seeing a resurgence in his career as the Don ZanFagna Foundation endeavors to promote his work.